Uncle Vanja @ Wilton's Music Hall

Saturday 10th Feb

Have wanted to check out this venue for a while now and this Mamet adaptation spurred me to action. What a fabulous space! Light blue crumbly walls and Indian murals at the back of the Balcony - it was shabby yet sophisticated like some grand dame. It was therefore such an apt venue for a play about decay. Michael Billington has said that he measures his life out in Uncle Vanya's and funnily enough, the last production that I watched was the one with SSB @ the Donmar. Okay so Colin Stinton wasn't as charismatic but the bitterness of his existence was very moving, his tears flowing freely in the final scene with Sonya. I was pretty curious to watch him as he's worked with Mamet a lot and he managed to pull off a British accent really well. Rachael Stirling was a complete chip off the old block - I've watched her mother in Medea many years ago and it was startling to see it mirrored- the voice, the gestures and the poise!

Turns out that Charlie Cridlan who I went to uni with and was extremnely talented even then designed the show so we had a reason to hang around for the after-show drinks where I tried really hard not to gawp at Sue Johnson (from The Royle Family)! It was very sad though to see Max Stafford-Clark once the Artistic Director of The Royal Court wheelchair bound and frail. Pretty sobering to see evidence of how time ravages the physical self, all the more poignant after the Margaret Salmon exhibition.